Fairy Tale Socks... and Matching Mitts!

I *did* get my Fairy Tale Sock Club #2 Third Sock Kit in the mail on Thursday night. (I now have a Peacock of my Own. That's all I'm sayin'.) Rather than dive right into it, though, I decided that I'd finish my Second Sock Kit first. Since I was home sick most of Friday, by Friday evening, I was up to here:


and by Saturday afternoon, they were done!

I'm warning you RIGHT NOW that this is lots of photos of these things, because I love them so...!


Top

Top

Side

to Side

... and Back!
Now, I love, love, LOVE this pattern. And, since I have freakishly small feet *and* knit loosely, I had a lot of yarn left over. So, my sleep pattern being completely mucked up, I stayed up until 2:30 Sunday morning knitting this:


Sunday, I got roughly halfway on the second one, but by the end of Monday (well, by the end of Leno), they were done.


backs

palms
The So, socks *and* mitts for the price of one little kit - pretty darned cool!!




Okay, now I'm just showing off.
This is far and away my favorite of the Fairy Tale Sock Club patterns thus far, but you could probably tell that...!

Finished Socks - FTSC-II #2, "The Fisherman and His Wife"

Yesterday morning, I finished my Fairy Tale Sock Club I #2 socks - "The Fisherman and His Wife". This involved finishing the socks, then knitting a small fish:

six rows in, and I wasn't sure I was gonna get a fish-looking thing out of this

Stuffing the fish with yarn left over from the Sort-of Star Tam

The resulting fish - looking like a fish!!
Then I needed to crochet a net to catch my little fishy in:

Fishnet Jumble

Blocking...

And a mere 8 hours later, a dry net!
I let the fish swim around for a while...


... and then it was time to net her up. I really like these (and note that I finally caved and got a pair of sock blockers, even if I did forget to adjust them before taking this photo))!!


When I left the house this morning, my FTSC-II-#3 package had not yet arrived, so, as I finished these, I'm allowed to start the new socks when they get here. I have now finished All Three of the FTSC-I socks, and I love them all! Yaaaay!

Quikpost

Finished both my feet, and got all my ends tucked in:


Tonight, I knit and stuff my little fishie and crochet up his net. Then, Socks are Done!!

Actual Colors may Vary

Well, nothing happened over the weekend on my TKGA homework, as I forgot to bring my questions and label printouts home. Not much (maybe six rows?) happened on the Autumn Serenity Stroller Snuggie, since I was afeared The Eventual Recipient might see it at one of the various events I attended. Instead, heaping gobs happened on my Fairy Tale Sock Club #1 Second Socks, "The Fisherman and his Wife". I'm to the toe on the right sock, and about a pattern repeat and a half away from the toe on the left sock. (This has become my key to Finishing Two Socks and Thus Avoiding Second Sock Syndrome: do, say, the ribbing on sock A, then on sock B. Then do the leg on sock B, then the leg on sock A. Yes, I own a frightening number of size 1 and size 0 steel DPNs.)


I also discovered that setting the camera in my tiny-phone to "night shot" actually results in Actual Colors coming through under florescent lights. The pretty blue of the yarn looks Just Right on my monitor (can't vouch for yours, though). I also also discovered that the little zipper bags my bags-for-delicate-laundry come in work wonderfully as sock project bags. See?


Anyway, I hope to get to at least one toe tonight. Yay!

Bunnies, bunnies, it must be BUNNIES!

Okay, so I'm being good and I'm up to swatches 5 & 6 on my TKGA Basics, Basics, Basics Lesson #2, but I'm also working on my Fairy Tale Sock Club Socks. I'm doing Linen Stitch on the heels of the socks in question... and I ask you, doesn't two-color linen stitch make little stitches that look just like BUNNIES??


I'm totally silly-pleased about the Bunny Stitch.

I finally turned in my homework...

Saturday morning, I finally got my TKGA Basics, Basics, Basics Lesson #1 in the mail. FINALLY. I had the swatches knitted in three freakin' days - and it took six weeks to get up the courage to block them, and then another three to write up my homework and mail the blasted things. I must do better next time. Anyway, here are my lovely swatches:


In a completely unrelated story, I turned my first-ever absolutely perfect heel last Friday morning, on my second Theseus & the Minotaur sock. I am very pleased that I finally managed to fight off distractions and actually do a heel correctly the Very First Time Out of the Gate.


More knitting fun tomorrow!

Mythological Socks and Gusset Hole Prevention

Socks I knit aren't usually form-fitting (in that "exactly fitted around the ankle so it stays and holds nicely with no slipping whatsoever"), but this one is - and I actually *really* like it that way. It feels kinda like I'm wearing a skate - which is a warm-fuzzy. I hate the feeling of Loose Things around my ankles - it means I could slip, or land wrong (see, this is what happens when you're conditioned to something as a child. You still feel it's important decades after the fact when it doesn't actually apply at all.) Anyway, here is my perfect-at-the-ankle sock:


Me and my Little Sock


Here is my Sock #1 all finished, and the start of my left sock, Sock #2. Note how they're both in the photo so you have proof of my second-sockness. (I've got to get one of those mannequin feet that Wendy Johnson has - taking photos of my own feet is just a bit too much of a challenge these days.)


I'm trying to finish up my Checkerboard Waves Headscarf before the end of the month, so I'm knitting furiously on that. (Why? Because if I don't finish at least one thing in February - and right now, I've finished nothing - my monthly average for 2009 will be under two finishes a month, and that is NOT allowed to happen!) Hopefully, photos, and possibly the whole pattern for that up next week.

Also found this very helpful video on the elimination of Pesky Gusset Holes, which I should *NOT* be getting, but tend to sneak in from time to time due to my inability to count stitches after 9pm:


(url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOI_oXPm1iA)
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!!

Magic Socks!!

Back in the dawn of days (we'll call it the "80's"), I was headed off to college. I ended up going to a Math Intensive Type-school, for reasons that still escape me, other than it was a blast, I had fun, and I managed to leave on time, with a degree that I actually used for a few years. Had I not gone there, I'd have gone to a liberal arts college nearby, and majored in classical history, art and mythology, with a minor in Italian, and what classes I could muster in Ancient Greek. My masters would've been narrowed down to art & mythology; my PhD (well, I would've gone for it, I know me) would've been centered around some theme in Greco-Roman pantheistic mythology. Preferably one where I'd have an excuse to wander around Greece and Italy in search of ruins, art, and local variations on various myths (aka "poking around in old books and museums and libraries and private collections to my heart's content").

The reason I tell you this is so that you will understand why my husband thought I'd been shot when I started screaming (loudly: "EEEEEE! EEEEEEEEEEE! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!") when I got the most recent Fairy Tale Sock Club box in the mail last Thursday evening. Rather than strictly a fairy tale, these socks are based off one of the most well-known of the ancient Greek myths/histories out there: Theseus and the Minotaur. And they're based on one of the most well-known ancient Greek art forms: the Red Figured vase. (Example of the Gods and Goddesses on a vase, here.)


I should also add here that I love the Greek Key motif. My baby grand piano has it carved around the edges as decoration. The lovely treat-dishes on said piano have it. I inlaid the floor on the other side of the chimney from said piano with a Greek Key.

For me, socks really don't get any better. You get the idea now, yes? Anyway, I started them right away - balled up the yarn and everything, figured out how I could follow the pattern and still wear the socks (I'm experimenting with being able to knit much more tightly than I do... more like a 'normal person'...). Squealed a lot more. Loudly. (My poor husband. And he was home sick, too.)

Sadly, I was sleeping much of the weekend, or running around a convention - neither of which is conducive to knitting. So, Friday night, I was this far:


After an entire three-day weekend, I had only made it to the start of the heel flap:


Look at that Greek Key in mosaic stitch.
I'd been doing mosaic stitch wrong for years.
Yay for good directions!!
So Tuesday morning, I finished turning the heel - and was way behind where I wanted to be by then. See?


Now on the upside, I'm learning to knit a bit tighter when it matters, so using the instructions for the Small Sock and size 2 needles (yes, bigger than called for, I'm in training), I'm keeping gauge and getting a sock that fits. I'm quite impressed with myself, unduly so, since being able to knit tightly or loosely seems to be something most knitters accomplish long before I did. So far, Sock #1 actually fits, and quite well... and I've actually got THE NUMBER OF STITCHES CALLED FOR on the needles! Wheeee! As of... I think Wednesday evening, I'd gotten the second mosaic band done (and am in awe of the Clever involved in getting decreases to work in a patterned band... really nifty trick!!) . . .


. . . and here's where I was this morning:


Look! Tiny Minotaur Feet!!
The stranded work is going a bit more slowly than I'd like, mostly because it's the counted cross-stitch of knitting: unlike regular knitting, where even patterned stuff has a repeat that can eventually be committed to memory, trying to commit this graphed image (in its entirety) to memory would result in ME being committed. So, I have to "look away from the knitting" and "count actual numbers" and other things that tend to slow me down. I've almost gotten the hang of socks-on-two-circs at this point, and I'm hoping to have a Finished Sock #1 and bits of a started Sock #2 to show you early next week!

Surprise Rabbiting

I really want to join the Hazel Knits 2009 Sock Club, but I just plain can't justify it, when I haven't finished the socks from my first sock club (Sanguine Gryphon's Fairy Tale Sock Club I) and the socks from the second (SG FTSC-II) are already shipping. But the yarn looks so pretty, and I've been really really good and have paid off the roof loan, and my credit card, and we're working on the other credit card... *sigh*. I'll think about it. But gosh, it's pretty yarn...

Gave my mom an early birthday present (because otherwise, she'd be expecting things) - her Peter Rabbit Bunny.


It was a big hit! She counted to make sure there were five little brass buttons on the jacket - thankfully, I'd hit the right number of little brass buttons purely by chance. ("It's authentic," she said with a nod.)

Discovered, much to my amusement, that my cousin's bff is a knitter, and has a knitblog with lots of fun knitting pictures (and other crafts, kinda like this one). If I'd found it without knowing the blogger had a connection to my cousin, I wouldn't think twice about adding the blog as a regular read, but I don't want to be seen as all prying or spying and stuff. Woe. One must consider the tender feelings of the younglings and not freak them out. (But it's nifty crafty stuff all the same.)

A finish, without proof, and a start...

So, I've really been on a finishing-projects roll lately. To the point that, as of late (really really late) Friday night, I pretty much ran out of small, easy to knit without much thinking knitting projects. Completely out. The only knitting projects that I've started and have left to finish are:

1. Illusion Dragon Blanket, which is presently about two bulky pounds of yarn attached to two MORE bulky pounds of yarn. NOT PORTABLE.
2. Secret of the Stole Absolutely lovely - and beaded. Beads don't travel well.
3. Peacock Scarf Again, lovely. Again, beaded. But with even smaller beads. NOT PORTABLE.
4. Titania Sweater This would work if I wasn't carefully stitching both fronts (I'm making a cardigan) and the back at the same time to make sure everything matches up well. It could just be a small skein and some needles - but it's THREE skeins, six needles, and more headache to transport than it's really worth. Plus, it managed to lose itself in my house again (I don't know how; I thought all my knitting UFOs were in one place. They aren't.)
5. Snowball's Chance in Hell Ninja Armwarmers Ooops. These are finished. Thus the problem. See?
   
   [THERE WOULD BE A REALLY CUTE PHOTO OF
   ME IN MY GLOVES BUT I TOTALLY
   FORGOT TO TAKE ONE, DESPITE THE FACT
   THAT I WORE THEM ALL WEEKEND!!]
   So cute, and just in time for winter!
   Somebody snapped a pic at C's party Saturday night!
   Thanks, whoever you were!!
   
6. Forget-me-Not Lace Shawl is the carry-commute project now, but mohair lace isn't the easiest thing on a bumpy train.
7. Tiger Eye Shawl is a possible. For one, it's out of my Claudia Handpainted Silk Lace, which I absolutely love... but it's a 25 row repeat really openwork pattern that makes my brain melt if I can't pay Very Careful Attention.
8. Argyle Hearts Sweater ... is running off three skeins at once. Bulky, bulky, bulky. (The yarn, not the sweater. The sweater will just be pleasantly toasty.)

See? That's it. That's all the knitting I've got going. Everything on the needles at this time. And I'm doing SOOOO well not starting things, I'm trying really hard not to do so. But I may have to, just because I think doing lace or bulky all the time will drive me nuts.

Clearly, I need to find my Fairy Tale Sock Club I #2 socks and knit them. Now, where did I put that box?

Oh, there it is..!


How I spent an evening...!
Well, for a brief, shining moment, I had 56 UFOs. One of my cross-stitch pieces, "Welcome Friends", started back in the mid-90s, will never, ever get finished. It's lovely; I'm hoping to find one of those on-line finishing groups that, if they like your half-stitched piece, will adopt it and finish it for themselves. I'd hate to just toss it away, but I know I'm never finishing it, so it came off the scroll-bars on Sunday, and is boxed up ready to ship to its new home, if I can find it one.

As I cast on my first FTSC#1-2 sock this morning on the train (back up to 57), and brought along my size 6 bamboo needles to work so I could cast on the entrelac scarf for my husband (that would be 58), somehow, I don't think that will be the case by the end of the week, now that all the holiday stuff is done (Really. It is. Days early. First time EVER!). On the other hand, hey, I can start two new things and STILL be under 60 UFOs!!!!

Everyone have a good week!

Gorgeous Finished Socks

I did get something accomplished this weekend. One, my holiday shopping is done, and the important boxes (for the under-fifteen sets) are off in the mail. There's still a wee bit of wrapping and mailing to do... but it's under control. (I'll keep telling myself that.)

On the knitting front, I really surprised myself. I put on my Atlantis CD Saturday afternoon, preparing to get everything wrapped... and the music made me pick up my Fariy Tale Sock Club #1 third sock pair, "The Magic Turban, The Magic Whip, and the Magic Carpet". By halftime of the Ravens/Redskins game last night, they were done, and my dear husband managed to get some pictures. (With me almost falling off the couch once or twice as he said "okay, move just a bit to the left... turn your knee... okay, hold it there..." usually followed by "ARE YOU OK??")

First, I finished the right sock:


Lovely, yes? Then, the second... the beaded section flew by, and then I was on the cuff. For which I had a lovely new perfect-for-size-1-needles shiny green safety pin as a stitch marker. See?


Now, the finished pair-of-socks photos:


Two Socks


Bottom of Socks


Beading on Side


Love, rightside up
I'm pretty excited that these are done, especially since I hadn't been expecting to work on them at all this weekend. But *Poof!* there they are! (I may also be the only one who's finished these - other than the designer, which is kinda cool.)

And, much to my joy, my size 1 Addi circs are now freed up for the Ninja Mitts. So those will be going even FASTER. Woohoooo!!

Wooly Bullies and Market Woes

I haven't the faintest idea how to embed a YouTube video (and I think it requires "joining", which I refuse to do), so I hereby redirect you to YouTube to see the wonderfully subversive video about crochet in a knit-dominated world, Wooly Bullies. Court, thanks for posting this gem!!

You may have noticed that, except for Tuesday, all the backgrounds of my photos are "my desk at work" or "The stone wall outside work" or "the lunchroom at work". The banking/finance industry, which indirectly pays for my yarn, is NOT having a good week. On the other hand, I'm getting a lot done on my #3 Fairy Tale Sock Club socks in between bouts of market panic. Having strung all the beads on Wednesday, Thursday was devoted to Actual Knitting. I didn't get anywhere near as much done as I thought I would, because of the Bead Factor. Even though I gave myself YARDS of yarn before the beads are there en masse, I caught up quickly. So it goes "knit a row, spend five minutes moving all the beads down what seems like enough, knit two rows, spend five more minutes moving all the beads..."

Thus, I got This Far (20 rows up):




I'm hoping to have at least one bead-part of one leg done by tomorrow. With Washington Mutual (WaMu) collapsing like a ton of bricks, there might not be that much knitting time today.

A surprising new ability!

It certainly surprised me, that's for certain - apparently I learned something, before I realized I knew it. Seriously. Look at the following picture. Note that it's two-color knitting, and I'm just easily running both threads as if they were one, stitching the one I need and ignoring the one I didn't. I was on the train (see "train window" as evidence in photo below), and wondering why the heck the second MTMWMC sock was going so much more quickly than the other... and that would be why! So, I made my husband take a picture.


This new trick that my hands figured out before my brain knew what they were doing made getting all the way up to the "word" part of the sock before an early bedtime possible. See?


It probably doesn't hurt that I didn't have to figure out what the heck I was doing this sock, either, but could just slavishly copy the first one. With a few tweaks; I figured out how to do the "Chart A" increases near the toe so that the pattern just flows, and where to put the decreases to get the "word" part so it works out pretty. Also cheating horribly on second sock vis-a-vis the bottom - I purposely overstitched two stitches and scooted them onto the back needles so the "word" part is on the top needle, and the pattern on the bottm ones. Makes for less thinking. Hoping to have second sock up to where first sock is by end of lunch today. Wheeee!!